§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will inaugurate discussions with the Open university on the possibilities presented by recent developments in east and central Europe for the use of its particular skills and experience in the field of distance learning; if he will consider providing seedcorn funding to the university to investigate such possibilities; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe Open university has been quick to seize the opportunities presented by recent developments in east and central Europe. Since 1989 the university's open business school has been working with a Hungarian consortium to bring its management training courses, in translation, to managers in Hungary. The Government welcomed this initiative which I was pleased to have an opportunity to observe at first hand last year and provided financial support from the British Council and the know-how fund. A similar scheme is under way in Czechoslovakia, also with support from the know-how fund. This year, 20 Russian students began to study the university's "The Effective Manager" course in Moscow. I do from time to time discuss these matters with the Open university.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress there has been in the development of environmental education programmes by the Open university; and what part his Department has played in carrying matters forward.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe Open university has offered courses on environmental subjects since 1972 with 33 of its courses, ranging from management to environmental chemistry, including environmental themes. More than 12,000 Open university undergraduates are currently enrolled on such courses. In 1991 a new interdisciplinary course called "Environment" was introduced into the undergraduate programme.
The Government do not provide a specific element of funding for environmental education, but support all undergraduate courses through recurrent grant. I was pleased to announce in June that the university would be enabled to recruit an additional 3,000 undergraduate students in 1992.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he received the report on the review of the Open university; what the main conclusions of the review were; and if he will place a copy in the Library.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthI received the report of the review of the Open university in March and copies were placed in the Library in July. The main conclusions of the review were that the Open university is the major United Kingdom provider of part-time degree level study at a distance, and that it is providing highly valued opportunities in higher education for substantial and increasing numbers of people. In recognition of this the Government have funded 3,000 additional undergraduate places at the university in 1992.